Suddenly, I get a new title

In the year 2010, I will become a great-grandfather. This will take awhile to digest. Being a grandfather was strange enough, but this….

The news was announced last night as a bunch of us were sitting around a campfire at Wildlights. It’s an exciting thing, of course, and there’s almost a sense of immortality in knowing that a part of you is already guaranteed for a couple of generations after you’re gone.

At the same time, it adds a new dimension to aging. I never knew any of my great-grandfathers, because they were gone long before I was born. In fact, I never knew either of my grandfathers, either — again, both died before I was born. I’ve always regretted that, because I came to know them only through family stories and they were both fascinating men. I would like to have sat around and chewed the fat with them and learned from them.

I know a little about my mother’s grandfather, from her descriptions of him, and from studying up on family history. A picture of him standing in front of our house with other of our ancestors hangs on our wall. But he seems like a shadowy figure.

Here and now, I will suddenly become a great-grandfather myself, and hopefully will be here to see my great-grandson or great-grand-daughter grow. Quite a way to start a new year.